Fresh Crow Doing More Touring And Less Drinking, Sheryl Crow Makes Strong, Soulful Album

‘I was hoping to make a rural-sounding record - sort of Bobbie Gentry in the ‘90s,” says Sheryl Crow, describing her mind-set while recording her new A&M album.

There’s no cause for alarm; Crow did not cover “Ode To Billie Joe” on her self-titled and self-produced second album, due Sept. 24, nor is she sporting an upswept, big, black coiffure. But she has made an album with a bluesy, stripped-down appeal that, although loaded with pop hooks, has far greater depth than 1993’s sextuple-platinum “Tuesday Night Music Club.”

While undeniably rawer than her last project, the new album features a much stronger vocal performance by Crow, an improvement she attributes to limitless touring and limited imbibing.

“A lot of what I recorded on the last record was while I was drinking or stone-cold drunk,” Crow says. “On (tour), people were surprised I could sing and carry a tune. This time out, what’s on tape is a continuation of what was happening on the road.

“I don’t mind the occasional evening of two to 12 beers,” she says with a raspy laugh, “but I feel like a different person.”

Crow says she also felt like a different person after a trip to Bosnia earlier this year to play for U.S. troops: “I got home, and I felt a little ashamed that I’d gotten caught up in the whole career thing … (I thought) I’m going to go through every lyric and make sure that there’s nothing wasted here, that every line can stand up 10 years from now.”

One immediate result was “Redemption Day,” a political, somber tale inspired by her trip and some of the horrors she saw. Without being dogmatic, Crow manages to make a few other political statements on the album. On “Love Is A Good Thing,” she laments children killing one another “with a gun they bought at the Wal-Mart discount stores” - which has led Wal-Mart, America’s largest retailer, to announce it will ban the new album from its stores. Industry observers say that could cost Crow 400,000 in record sales.

A&M chairman Al Cafaro, calling Wal-Mart’s decision “de facto censorship,” accuses the chain of “choosing guns over music. The song in question is a cautionary tale. Every day in America, children are dying by guns bought legally. Her responsibility as an artist is to reveal the truth, and ours as a record company is to defend that ability.”

The Wal-Mart controversy is the latest in a series of ups and downs Crow has experienced since the stunning success of her first album.

“I really was feeling raw when I got down to New Orleans (where the new album was primarily recorded), and my intent was to not deny what I was feeling,” she says.

That vulnerability came from a numbing three years which saw “Tuesday Night Music Club,” named after a songwriters’ collective that met weekly, catapult Crow to fame. The album, which peaked at No. 3 on The Billboard 200, spawned four hits, including the cross-format smash “All I Wanna Do,” which hit No. 2 on the Hot 100. As her star continued to rise, she swept the Grammys in 1995.

But for Crow, all the success and glory surrounding “Tuesday Night Music Club” has been slightly tempered by the resentment she says she has felt from some members of the Tuesday Night Music Club.

“After the Grammys, there were more negative things happening than positive things; I was no longer the underdog,” she continues. “When I made this record, I wanted to get (my response) to that on tape. Records are really just calendars of what you’re feeling at the time.”

Because of that, A&M discouraged Crow from trying to come out with a follow-up album too soon.

“My advice to Sheryl was not to let criticism, particularly criticism that comes from a very petty place, get to her,” Cafaro says.

To promote the album, A&M is firming up a strong TV-appearance slate that includes “Saturday Night Live” on Oct. 5, a slot on “Late Show With David Letterman” and a stint as VH1’s October Artist of the Month.

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: CROW IN CONCERT Sheryl Crow will appear Friday at the Beasley Performing Arts Coliseum in Pullman. Tickets are $22 ($25 the day of the show) and available at G&B Select-A-Seat outlets.